Just Like Drugs, You Can Be Addicted To Social Media.

As at 2015, about 1.73 billion have been estimated to use social media globally and this number is rising fast.

According to ASAPScience, a lot of us are actually addicted to social media. The same mechanisms that goes on in the brain when people take drugs or have sex is activated when you are on social media. So like a junkie, you keep going back for more.

You may also think that being able to juggle activities on 5 different social platforms simultaneously means that you are good at multi-tasking… Wrong!

Ever felt your phone ring while you were busy, only to later check and find out you have no notifications? Well, it happens to the best of us.

This psychological phenomenon is called Phantom Vibration Syndrome (Yup, that exists!)

The brain gets so used to receiving notifications that when the phone does not, the brain fills in the blanks and makes us feel things that aren’t real.

Social media can also make you self-centered. You tweet and get 300 RTs, you post a photo on Instagram and it gets 700 likes. It is almost like you are being rewarded for talking about yourself, whereas in a face-face convos, one has to give room for others to respond.

There were however a few positive observations.

Relationships that are started online are more likely to last longer, because the anonymity that comes with not seeing the person face to face, allows people to be more expressive about their future goals and personal views, which makes for stronger bonds.